Tuesday, February 28, 2012

When the Daytona 500 ran into a protracted delay following an explosion and fire on the track Monday night, NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski did what any social media addict would: grabbed his phone and began posting status updates to Twitter.

Then he gained more than 100,000 followers in less than two hours.

Keselowski’s fellow driver Juan Pablo Montoya crashed into a safety vehicle mid-race. The collision and jet fuel — the safety vehicle reportedly holds 200 gallons of jet kerosene — sparked a huge ball of fire, although both vehicles’ drivers appeared to avoid serious injury. The race was halted. From his spot in the racecar traffic jam, Keselowski sent this tweet to his (at the time) less than 85,000 followers:

More than an hour later, the race resumed. Keselowski’s follower count topped 185,000.

Although I didn't join the thousands of followers, I did check his feed and saw some of the photos he posted as the delay ran on. The drivers were out of their cars and standing around talking to each other on the backstretch while the clean-up and repairs went on, and Keselowski was the only one with a phone. Since the drivers couldn't see the replays of the accident, some of them were able to see the photos and maybe even video on Brad's phone. It was another example of the new media's influence on news.

My guess is this will be the last time a driver does this because I'm guessing that they'll issue a firm rule against smartphones in cars. Even though Brad never used it while driving, they won't want to take the chance that someone might try it.